Czech Pardubice Festival won by Kononenko and Navara...

8/14/2011 – ...and many others. The traditional games festival held in Pardubice is a bonanza of games and chess events, ranging from the classic Grandmaster Open, won by Kononenko, to the top Active Chess event (of three) won by Navara, to bughouse events, Fischer Random, team events, a blitz marathon, not to mention other games such as Go, Scrabble, Magic, and more. Illustrated report.

Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. Start your personal success story with ChessBase 14 and enjoy your chess even more!

Along with the ChessBase 14 program you can access the Live Database of 8 million games, and receive three months of free ChesssBase Account Premium membership and all of our online apps! Have a look today!

The International chess and games festival CZECH OPEN 2011 took place in Pardubice, Czech Republic. Festival CZECH OPEN is a part of series of international chess festivals CZECH TOUR 2011/2012.

A giant hall for a giant field

This year already marked the 22nd year of the festival, and there were 1193 players from no fewer than 40 countries including 60 GMs and WGMs, and 81 IMs and WIMs. Participants of the festival could choose from almost 30 different types of chess tournaments, such as the Polgar Superstar Chess World Championship and the Fischer Random tournament which included top Czech player GM Navara in the lineup.

OnJuly 20th and 21st the strongest event of the festival took place: the Vlastimil Loucek Open, The Czech Republic Active Chess Championship with the participation of two Czech top players GM David Navara (2722) and GM Viktor Laznicka (2681). There were 132 players from 18 countries (29 GM, 2 WGM, 19 IM,4 WIM) at the start. GM Laznicka started with a perfect 6.0/6, but finished in third place after a last-round loss against GM Navara. GM David Navara won the tournament, while second place went to Ukrainian IM Andrey Baryshpolets to Ukraine.

The climax game of the event between Laznicka and Navara

Final standings of Vlastimil Loucek Open (active chess)

Rk.

Tit.

Name

FED

Rtg

Pts

1

GM

Navara David

CZE

2722

7.5

2

IM

Baryshpolets Andrey

UKR

2474

7.5

3

GM

Laznicka Viktor

CZE

2681

7.0

4

GM

Kononenko Dmitry

UKR

2593

7.0

5

GM

Levin Evgeny

RUS

2465

7.0

6

GM

Kravtsiv Martyn

UKR

2571

7.0

7

FM

Gorovets Andrei

BLR

2417

6.5

8

GM

Zakhartsov Viacheslav

RUS

2578

6.5

9

GM

Hracek Zbynek

CZE

2624

6.5

10

GM

Stupak Kirill

BLR

2530

6.5

GM Pardibice Open winner Dimitry Kononenko (center), with second place Konstantine
Shanava (left) and third place Viacheslov Zakhartsov (right).

The main chess tournaments of the festival started right after, the most important undoubtedly being the Grandmaster Pardubice Open which is a part of the ACP World Series. There were 279 players from 31 countries (50 GM, 5 WGM, 58 IM, 11 WIM). The top three seeded players GM Philipp Schlosser (GER, 2599), GM Jiri Stocek (CZE, 2596) and GM Dmitry Kononenko (UKR, 2593) had their work cut out for them with 32 players rated 2500 or more in the lineup, not to mention the many underrated young players on the rise. After the dust had settled, Dimitry Kononenko lived up to his favoritism status with an impeccable tournament, scoring 7.5/9 and conceding only three draws. Here is an example of the fine play that brought him the title.

See also

3/27/2018 – Sergey Karjkin didn't succeed in posing serious problems for Ding Liren and after, what he called, a "terrible blunder", he had to scramble to save a draw. That left Caruana in great shape to win the tournament. Mamedyarov struggled to find winning chances with black against Kramnik, but in the end that game ended drawn as well. Caruana, needing only a draw, was in command against Grischuk and even won the game to finish in clear first by a full point! | Photo and drawings by World Chess

See also

1/28/2018 – Magnus Carlsen won the 80th Tata Steel Masters which was decided in a blitz tiebreak over Dutch number one Anish Giri. The players contested two blitz games with 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move, with no sudden death Armageddon game needed. Vidit played solidly to earn a draw that was enough to win the Challengers, as Korobov could not manage to pull off a win with black on-demand. | Photo: Alina l'Ami TataSteelChess.com

Video

The setup for White recommended by Valeri Lilov is solid and easy to play – the thematic moves are almost always the same ones: Nge2, 0-0, Bg5 (or Be3), Nd5, Qd2. Later, according to Black’s setup, things continue with f4 or even Rac1, b4 and play on the queenside. Starting with the classic Botvinnik-Spassky, Leiden 1970, the author describes this universally employable setup in 7 videos (+ intro and conclusion).

"Simple yet aggressive!" Enjoy this new exciting DVD by Simon Williams. Let the famouns Grandmaster from England show you how to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4).